同等学历人员申请硕士学位英语-阅读理解(一)
(总分30,考试时间90分钟)
专项练习
Passage One
Just over three years old and about four-feet tall. Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely." Dr.  Sarah Sallon said of the date palm，whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2 000 years ago. The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling **mitted suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers.
    Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about 2 000 years old—the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.
    Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel, updates the saga of Methuselah in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
    One thing they don't know yet is whether it's a boy or girl. Date palms differ by sex, but experts can't tell the difference until the tree is six or seven years old, Sallon said.
    She hopes there's a chance to use it to restore the extinct Judean date palm, once prized not only for its fruit but also for medicinal uses.
    The researchers have had a look at the plant's DNA, however, and found it shares just over half its genes with modern date cultivars(栽培品种)．
    "Part of our project is to preserve ancient knowledge of how plants were used," Sallon said in a telephone interview. "To domesticate them so we have a ready source of raw material. "
    Her Middle Eastern Medicinal Plant Project is working to conserve and reintroduce plant
s to the region where they once lived.
    "Many species are endangered and becoming extinct. Raising the dead is very difficult, so it's better to preserve them before they become extinct," she said.
    The oldest documented seed to be grown previously was a 1 300-year-old lotus, Sallon said.
1. It can be learned that Methuselah ______．
    A. is an ancient tree about 2 000 years old
    B. is grown from a seed about 2 000 years old
    C. had already become extinct 2 000 years ago
    D. has been the food source since 2 000 years ago
2. The word "saga" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to "______".
    A. extraordinary story          B. special function
    C. detailed information        D. latest development
3. What do we know about Methuselah's sex?
    A. It will be made clear within a year or two.
    B. It will remain a myth for at least a decade.
    C. It won't be known until several years later.
    D. It won't be decided without ancient knowledge.
documented evidence4. The author seems to suggest that ______.
    A. the attempt to grow the Judean palm date will end in failure
    B. the effort to reintroduce the Judean palm date is sure to pay off
    C. the researchers are likely to create a new species of the Judean palm date
    D. the researchers stand a chance of success to renew the Judean palm date
5. Which of the following can best summarize Sallon's Plant Project?
    A. Discovering new species.
    B. Protecting rare species.
    C. Restoring extinct species.
    D. Reforming existing species.
6. The purpose of the passage is to ______
    A. enlarge our knowledge of the plants
    B. provide latest information on plant usage
    C. introduce a successful project concerning a plant
    D. emphasize the importance of rare plant preservation
Passage Two
Why is Valentine's Day, a holiday dedicated to the sweet bloom of love, celebrated in a cold month more suited to hats and gloves than to thoughts of love?
    "It's very mysterious," says Henry Kelly, director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California. Kelly theorizes lovers everywhere can thank two guys from the 14th century: renowned poet Geoffrey Chaucer—famous for penning "The Canterbury Tales"—and a not-so-famous saint who went by the name of Valentine.
    In 1381, Chaucer was **posing a poem in honor of the arranged marriage between England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. Chaucer was looking for just the right saint to honor on May 3, the day Richard II signed the papers of engagement to his Bohemia beauty.
    His search ended, Kelly guesses, when Chaucer learned that a Saint Valentine of Genoa
had an honorary feast day on May 3. So he wrote the poem "The Parliament of Fowls" in the couple's honor.

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